The Island Games
by Lost Browncoat
Summary: April Fool's Day rolls around on the island. Wackiness ensues!
1. Wacky Fun

**The Island Games**

April Fool's Day on the Island. Wackiness ensues!

_Disclaimer: We do not own LOST!_

Chapter 1: Let the Games Begin

* * *

"Hey Rose," called Kate, approaching the woman from the shore as she stood by the clothesline. "Need some help?"

"Sure, honey." Rose agreed, nodding with a smile. Kate smiled back and bent down, pulling a couple of wet shirts out of the basin at the woman's feet and began to hang them up. "So..." Rose began conversationally. "I see you're spending a lot of time with Sawyer." Kate looked up from where she was pinning a t-shirt to the line to glance at Rose, who was smiling, almost mischievously.

"I, uh... Yeah..." she said with a soft laugh, her cheeks reddening slightly. Rose leaned forward, an earnest twinkle in her eyes.

"What are you going to do to him today?" she asked with a smile. Kate frowned at her.

"Do? What do you mean, "do"?" she asked, confused. Rose shook her head like she always did when she couldn't understand how people didn't know the same things she did.

"Its April Fools day!" she told her in a low whisper. Kate nodded in realization, laughing lightly at the woman's expression. "I put vinegar from the hatch in Bernard's soup earlier... quite entertaining!" Kate laughed again and clipped the shirt to the line.

"What should I do?" she asked Rose quietly, glancing around to see if Sawyer was anywhere nearby. "I highly doubt he has any idea its April Fool's day... I didn't even realize it was April..." she said sheepishly. "I should talk to you more often." she said with a smile. Rose laughed.

"Well... just think what'd be the most simple and the most fun..." she advised, watching as Kate pondered. "Go on, honey, I got the rest of this." she gestured to the couple pairs of shorts left in the basin. Kate nodded and smiled and began to wander away, thinking.

What could she do to Sawyer? Actually, what could she do to anyone? She could pull something on Sawyer, or Jack, or even Charlie. She flopped down on the sand not far from Sawyer's tent, looking out at the waves as she thought. She swiveled around and noticed a large rip in the center of Sawyer's tarp, wondering vaguely how long it'd been there, or if it always had and she just hadn't noticed before. Suddenly an idea hit her; his stash! What if she took something... and... she paused, pondering what to do with it. Her eyes wandered over the beach, then settled on the trees. That was it! Steal something from his stash that he was sure to notice missing, and put it in a tree.

She headed over to her own tent and ducked inside, looking around. She spotted a towel and grabbed it, pulling all four corners to a central point and tying the ends together, essentially making a pouch. From her extra pair of shoes she pulled out the laces, tied them together and then looped it through the pouch, making something that looked like a terrycloth hanging basket. Smiling to herself, she balled up the towel and laces and sauntered non-chalantly towards Sawyer's tent, glancing around and making sure he was no where near as she entered it.

She was still looking around her as she entered the tent, her head turned, looking over her shoulder, and when she'd stepped in and looked in front of her, she nearly had a heart attack. She gasped before she could stop herself upon seeing Sawyer lying on the sand, sleeping. She carefully let her heartbeat go back to normal and snuck in as quietly as she could. She flipped open his suitcase and took a look at its contents. Playboys, meds, books... all of his smokes were long gone and the alcohol had long since been used for medical needs. She decided to take the meds and a few of the books, the magazines being too large for the small pouch. She carefully stuck the meds in her pouch, knowing they were simply headache meds and other painkillers that Sawyer liked to have with him, that Jack had finally given up trying to prevent him from having. She took a couple of his favourite books, the ones she'd seen him reading more than once, and crept out of the tent, her heart pounding wildly. Grinning, she hurried down the beach a little ways, looking for a good tree. She finally found one that had branches protruding out over the sand, so that anything hanging from it could be easily seen.

Kate easily climbed the tree and shuffled along the large over hanging branch until she was completely over the sand. She carefully lowered the towel, sagging with Sawyer's stuff, until it was low enough to be seen from a bit of a distance, but much too high to be able to be reached from the ground. He would have to climb the tree if he wanted his stuff back. Snickering to herself, she quickly tied a couple of strong knots in the laces and shimmied back down the branch, then down the tree trunk, about twenty feet to the ground. She ran back to her tent and flopped down inside, sweating lightly from climbing the tree and running, grinning to herself. She peeled off her t-shirt and replaced it with a tank top, pulling on her usual jeans and cinching the baggy waistline with her belt. Ignoring her shoes, she wandered out of her tent barefoot, immediately spotting Sawyer as he emerged from his own tent. She noticed he looked particularly grumpy, and guessed he'd already noticed his missing items.

"What's wrong?" she asked innocently as she walked over to him, pretending to look concerned. He scowled at her, and she tried not to laugh.

"Someone 'round here's a thief." he muttered darkly.

"A thief?" she asked, making her voice convincingly confused. "What do you mean, a thief?" Kate glanced to the side as Charlie joined them.

"Who's a thief now?" he asked curiously, falling into step as Kate and Sawyer slowly walked away from his tent.

"Some punk stole my meds and some books." growled Sawyer. "Went to get me a headache pill, and they were gone." Kate bit her lower lip.

"Aw, that's too bad... who did you piss off lately?" she asked innocently, not bothering to ask "if" he pissed anyone off. She grinned as Charlie snickered.

"Ha ha, Freckles." Sawyer said grumpily. Kate's eyes flickered to the towel-basket hanging from a tree limb now in view in the distance. She tried not to smile and focused on Sawyer again instead.

"Seriously though, who would want your meds? Jack has enough for everyone..." Kate mused out loud.

"You're the sheriff, Freckles. You tell me." he snapped, though he was teasing as well.

"That's funny..." commented Charlie, "Cause weren't you the one that said you were the sheriff when you took all the guns?" Kate laughed, grinning at Sawyer as he shot her a dirty look.

"What?" she asked with a smile. "He's got a point.

"Yeah well.." Sawyer looked around as he tried to come up with a snappy remark, and his eyes suddenly found the towel bundle. Kate noticed this and fought to hide her smile, trying to look merely curious as Sawyer pointed it out.

"What's that?" Charlie asked. Kate looked over at him; he too was squinting at the towel bundle, which was getting closer and closer. They were within a few feet of it when Sawyer noticed something.

"Hey! That's one of my books sticking out of that!" He exclaimed, pointing up at the blue edge of a cover that was sticking out the side of the towel. "And that's another!" he said, stepping under it and pointing to the other side of it. He let out an annoyed snarl. "Alright, anyone see who did this?" Sawyer glared at Kate first, who was working furiously hard to hide her smile. Charlie shrugged and grinned, looking up at it, a good 15 feet above their heads

"I dunno who did it, but they're good at tree climbing." Charlie commented, still looking up. Kate groaned inwardly as both Charlie and Sawyer turned to look at her, Charlie's eyes shining with amusement, Sawyer's with incredulity.

"Freckles!" he exclaimed, and she couldn't resist anymore, she broke into laughter. "Ohhh..." he let out a vengeful snarl and started to step towards her but she danced away, grinning.

"Happy April Fool's day!" she called to him as he chased after her. She ran into the jungle, barefoot still, and he stopped at the tree line, watching her dart between the trees for a moment before she was gone. Sawyer turned back to see Charlie laughing too.

"Oh piss off, Sport." he said moodily. Charlie walked away obligingly, laughing the entire time. Sawyer muttered under his breath and began climbing the tree, taking significantly longer than Kate had. He carefully untied the knot after shimmying his way along the branch, wavering unsteadily. After he watched his things drop to the ground he began to shimmy back, but slipped, and suddenly fell from the limb with an alarmed yell. He landed on his back in the sand with a loud grunt. He was dazed for a second but completely unhurt (aside from his ego), thankful that the sand was soft. He gathered his stuff together, wrapping it up in the towel, which as far as he was concerned was his property now. Oh, he was going to get her back. But worse. And he was going to have the time of his life doing it.

* * *

_A.N.: So what do you think? This chapter was written by Dani (SiriusStarr) and beta read by Jules (Moon's Tear). Please review! The next chapter will be up soon!_


	2. Payback

**The Island Games**

April Fools day on the island. Wackiness ensues!

_Disclaimer: We do not own LOST!_

Chapter 2: Payback

* * *

Sawyer decided that he needed payback for Kate's little prank.

He lay on the sand in the shade of a palm tree, thinking up his revenge. He decided he needed something bigger and better than she'd pulled if he wanted to discourage her from trying something else in the future. He needed something that would show her who was boss.

Before long, Sawyer had thought up a brilliant idea. The only problem was, he needed an accomplice. Jackass would never help him; he was too googly-eyed over Freckles to want to pull a stunt like the one he'd thought up on her. Ana-Lulu was out; she definitely wasn't the funny type. He could ask Charlie, but he probably couldn't keep a secret.

Just as Sawyer's mind wandered from Sayid to Hurley, Locke made his way down the beach, striding into Sawyer's line of vision. With one of his characteristic sly smiles, Sawyer sat up. He was perfect .

"Ah, the man of the hour," Sawyer said with a grin. "Just who I was lookin' to talk to."

Locke stopped, dropping the backpack he had slung over his shoulder onto the sand at his feet and wiping the back of one hand over his brow. He regarded Sawyer there beneath the palm tree, wondering just what the man wanted.

"What do you need?" Locke asked.

Sitting up from where he'd been reclining, Sawyer slowly stood and brushed the sand off of his jeans. He took a step forward so he was closer to Locke and surveyed the man. He had to choose his words carefully. He decided to take the old boar approach in asking what he needed to ask.

"I was thinkin' of setting up a boar trap outside o' my tent since the bastard seems to like it so much," Sawyer said wryly. "I was wondering if you could show me how to set up one o' those nifty snares."

"You won't catch a boar with a snare," Locke said pointedly. "You'll need a net if you want to catch anything bigger than a rabbit."

"Snare, net, I don't care, so long as it works," Sawyer said, rolling his eyes.

"Well it's easy," Locke began. "All you need is a net and a few lengths of rope."

"Rope and netting I got plenty of in my stash," Sawyer replied.

"Alright, well why don't you run along and bring some of those things back here, then I can show you how to do it," Locke suggested.

Sawyer surveyed him for a long moment skeptically, as though he thought Locke would run off and disappear if he left him alone. He nodded after a while and turned, heading up the beach to his shelter. After only a moment of digging he found what he needed. Before leaving the shelter again, Sawyer looked around just to be sure that nothing else had gone missing.

So far so good, he thought. Freckles hasn't been back.

With that, Sawyer turned and left the shelter once again, making his way back up the beach. When he reached the spot in which he'd left Locke, he looked around, not seeing the man. He groaned, thinking he'd have to wait for the other man to get back from wherever he'd been going to be able to play Kate.

Just then, Sawyer heard a rustling in the bushes near where he was standing. Furrowing his brows he stepped closer and peeked around the palm tree he'd been sitting under, seeing Locke bustling around in the underbrush, clearing some bushes away from the ground. Sawyer stepped into the small clearing and dropped the net as well as several lengths of rope on the ground at his feet.

"There it is," Sawyer said lightly. "Now what do I do with it?"

"Lay the net out on the ground first," Locke instructed. "You want it to cover an area big enough to hold whatever you're catching, but not so big that it'll leave a lot of wiggle room. You might have to fold it in half to make it small enough for a boar."

Sawyer nodded. He went about laying out the net. He grinned at the fact that its color was natural and mucky enough to disguise it well. It camouflaged with the jungle floor perfectly. Once he had it laid out, Sawyer stepped back and glanced up at Locke again, waiting for more instructions.

* * *

Meanwhile, in another part of the jungle as the two men were laying nets, Kate hiked along towards the caves. She chuckled to herself, still feeling smug about the fact that her prank had succeeded in pissing Sawyer off. She toyed absent mindedly with the water bottle in her hands. She could just imagine Sawyer sitting in his tent, still stewing over the fact that she'd gotten the upper hand.

She strode into the caves, waving to a few people she passed. She reached the waterfall and knelt at the edge, dipping her water bottle into the rock pool, watching water swirl into it. She was lost in the memory of the look on Sawyer's face for a long moment until she heard a voice behind her.

"You're looking pleased with yourself," Jack said as he walked up behind Kate, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

Kate only grinned and tossed a sly look over her shoulder. She waited until Jack had reached her side before looking up at him and speaking.

"What, you wouldn't be pleased with yourself if you'd managed to pull one over on the con man himself?" Kate asked with a chuckle.

Jack looked at her questioningly, waiting for an answer.

"Is this something I'm going to be hearing about later?" Jack asked wryly. "Is this going to turn into one of Sawyer's laments?"

"If it does then I'd say it's pretty pathetic," Kate replied. "It was just a joke. A little fun never hurt anyone."

"A little fun to you might not be a little fun to Sawyer," Jack said pointedly.

"I strung some of his stuff up in a tree," Kate replied. "It i is /i April Fool's day today, you know."

She smiled wickedly and sat back on her haunches, bringing her water bottle, now full, to her lips and taking a long sip. Finishing up, she lifted the water bottle over her head and tipped it up, letting some of the water inside spill over her hair, cooling her. She blinked the excess water out of her eyes and glanced back over at Jack, who was looking at her torn between incredulity and amusement.

"What?" Kate chuckled.

"You know he's not just going to let you off the hook," Jack commented. "He's going to think of something bigger, something better, and he's going to get you back."

"He wouldn't dare," Kate said with a grin.

"Oh yeah?" Jack asked. "Well if he pulls one over on you, don't say I didn't warn you."

Jack smiled down at Kate once more before turning around and disappearing back into the heart of the caves. Kate watched him go and stood slowly once he was out of sight, screwing the cap back onto her water bottle. Looking around one more time, Kate began to make her way out of the caves and into the jungle, heading back to the beach.

* * *

Sawyer watched Locke as the other man made his way off into the distance. He grinned darkly and held the rope he needed in one hand and the net he needed in the other. Locke's demonstration hadn't taken long and Sawyer figured he still had ample time before Kate was due back at her tent.

He made his way to her tent quickly, looking around to be sure that no one was paying him any mind as he snuck by. He didn't fancy being caught so early in the game. It wouldn't be fun, being busted before he'd even had the chance to set up. If he got caught, he'd never get his revenge and he wouldn't get to feel the satisfaction of seeing the look on Kate's face when she quite literally got caught in his trap.

He made it all the way to the front of her tent and no one was the wiser. With a grin, Sawyer set about setting up his revenge. He moved about stealthily, tying ropes to trees, stringing up a net, kicking some sand over it to cover it up. He finished up quickly and stood back, admiring his work.

"Well I'll be damned," he commented. "It's perfect."

* * *

Kate walked at a leisurely pace, watching the trees pass her by as she made her way to the beach. She smiled as she turned her face up to the sun which peeked through the canopy of trees above her, letting it warm her pleasantly. She glanced back down at the path again moments later and realized it had taken her all the way to the beach already.

Stepping out onto the hot, white sand, Kate kicked off her shoes. She stopped a moment to pick them up before continuing on, heading towards her shelter. She glanced around as she walked, waving occasionally to someone she noticed on the beach, stopping once or twice to chat with another survivor. Soon she'd reached her shelter and she paused outside for a moment, glancing around.

What she didn't expect when she took another step towards the open flap of her shelter was to be whisked up off of the ground and captured in some sort of a net. She screamed, struggling against the ropes she was trapped in, trying to wriggle free, despite there being very little wiggle room. She cried out as she attempted to thrash, looking around to try and locate the culprit.

At the same time, Sawyer stood at the side of Kate's shelter, watching intently. When she'd gotten herself caught in his trap, he laughed and watched her struggle. Yes, he decided, revenge was sweet. He slowly made his way around to the front of Kate's shelter, looking up at her where she hung in the net. A small crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle and Sawyer waved them off. He was cruel, but not i that /i cruel. He decided that Kate didn't need an audience.

Kate slowly started to calm down and stopped flailing helplessly, looking down from where she was strung up in the net as it spun slowly on the rope from which it was hung. Her lips were set in a thin line when her eyes fell on Sawyer. He was the one who'd done this to her.

"You," she snarled dangerously.

"Gotcha, Freckles!" Sawyer laughed. "April Fools!"

Kate fumed.

"Alright, alright, you've had your laugh, now get me down!" Kate snapped.

"No can do, Freckles," Sawyer said with a grin. "I think I'll let you sit up there for a while and think about what you did."

Kate scowled and glared at Sawyer as he turned his back on her and made his way slowly down the beach. She couldn't believe that she'd gotten herself stuck in his trap. She deserved it, she figured. As she sat there, her eyes burning into the back of his retreating head, she was already thinking up her next practical joke. She needed to go bigger; better. She needed to think up something that would scare Sawyer, and perhaps a few of the other islanders as well, so much, that they would never again tangle with the likes of her.

First, however, she had to get down.

* * *

_A.N.: Let us know what you think! This one was written by Jules (Moon's Tear) and beta read by Dani (SiriusStarr)._


End file.
